“God has blessed America,” Pastor Adrian Rogers said. “God gave us abundance, but the abundance has turned to greed. God gave us freedom, but the freedom has turned to license. America was dedicated by its founding fathers to Almighty God. Today, America has been taken captive by the world, the flesh, and the devil.”
Though he went to be with Jesus in 2005, Pastor Rogers saw the spiritual confusion, moral relativism, family dissolution, and violent conditions we see all around us in the United States and throughout the world. His message for America is as relevant and potent today as it was when he was in the pulpit, urging listeners to pray for revival and to call America back to God.
“America is on the verge of national collapse,” Pastor Rogers said. “But I want to show you from the Word of God that there is hope.”
Using passages from Nehemiah 1, Psalm 85, and Psalm 78, let’s look at some steps Christians can take today to help the United States of America remember her roots, repent of her sin, and once again realize God’s blessing.
These principles are without boundaries; they apply to all Christians everywhere, individually and corporately, as we hold out the hope of Jesus Christ for the nations.
Here are some words from the Declaration of Independence and from those who were leaders during our nation’s early years:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
President #1, George Washington
You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.
President #2, John Adams
The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and the attributes of God.
I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.
President #6, John Quincy Adams
In the chain of human events, the birthday of our nation is indissolubly linked to the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.
Benjamin Franklin, signer of both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, printer, diplomat, scientist, and the Governor of Pennsylvania
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and His religion as He left them to us, are the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.
The only hope for America is the same hope we have always had, if we would but move toward that Hope: Jesus Christ.
If we are to experience revival in America and recover the Christian values we once took for granted, we cannot continue to do business as usual.
We cannot consider ourselves obedient to Christ if we stand by and do nothing. We must look to Scripture and find out what it says about nations that stray from God and how they recover.
Colleges and universities dedicated to God are part of our national history. Now some of the institutions that were once “cities on a hill”—beacons of moral character—indoctrinate young people in the religion of humanism. Humanism is being taught from the top down—from the halls of Harvard to classrooms filled with Kindergarteners.
This Scripture is clear; we must lay the responsibility for teaching our children about God’s work in our lives at parents’ feet. How can we expect them to understand the Christian faith and to adopt Christian living when we are too busy fulfilling our own desires to obey what the Word of God commands:
Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done (Psalm 78:1-4).
Just as God gave His law to Israel, He has commanded Christian parents in America and in every nation to make those laws know to their children:
That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments; and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God (Psalm 78:6-8).
For more about the hope of teaching our children about God, His law, and His love, read the article, “Christian Faith and Values for the Coming Generations.”
America’s only hope is Jesus Christ. We must have revival in America. Revival begins with prayer—one man, one woman, one child, calling out to God, one church praying faithfully. Revival prayer brings the Holy Spirit into the home, the neighborhood, the churches, the city, and the nation. Here’s how the Psalmist prayed:
Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations? Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your mercy, Lord, and grant us Your salvation. ...Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land (Psalm 85:4-7,9).
For more about the need for revival and prayer for revival, read the article, America's Only Hope is Spiritual Awakening.”
When God’s people strayed from Him, forgot His Law...wanted Him gone from their lives, He removed His protection from them. Many were taken captive to Babylon, including Nehemiah. He inquired of some of the remnant and discovered the walls of Jerusalem were completely broken down...and that broke Nehemiah’s heart.
Though he was cupbearer to the King, a high position, he risked it all to follow God’s call. He had the vision to see Jerusalem restored and God’s people revived, and he was determined to pursue that vision at any cost...beginning with prayer. Here’s what he asked of the Lord before asking the king to grant him leave to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem:
I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You (Nehemiah 1:1-6a).
Nehemiah went on to confess his sins, the sins of his father’s house, and the sins of the nation, and to remind God of His promises of restoration when His children repent. He then asked for God’s favor before taking the rebuilding action for which God had given Him vision.
O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man (Nehemiah 1:11).
This is the kind of prayer we need today from Christians who will take responsibility to pray and repent of their own sins and the sins of the nation.
Pastor Adrian Rogers passed from this life before America began to experience some of the ills we see in our culture today, but because He preached the truth of God’s Word, and because God’s Word is timeless, Pastor Rogers could accurately diagnose the reason behind the collapse of America’s moral fabric.
“Most religion in America is man-centered religion rather than God-centered,” he said. “People are looking for religion to serve them.”
It’s past time we take seriously the need to ask God how we can serve Him, and to pray as Nehemiah did, “day and night.”
For more about Nehemiah’s faithfulness and its effect, read the article, “Restoring Christian Values Back Into America.”
For a look at how unconfessed sin impacts a nation, and how we can learn from one man’s failure, read the article, “Joshua 7: Unbroken Victory and Christian Living.”
